{"articles":[{"reaction_config":[{"icon":"excited","color":"#EE4950","stance":"excited"},{"icon":"happy","color":"#EDB723","stance":"happy"},{"icon":"apathetic","color":"#3AB093","stance":"apathetic"},{"icon":"sad","color":"#5ACDED","stance":"sad"},{"icon":"angry","color":"#624960","stance":"angry"}],"id":46096,"title":"Trump Admits He Planned to ‘Play Down’ Coronavirus He Confessed Was ‘More Deadly’ Than the Flu","html_content":"\n

by Causes | 9.9.20

What's the story?

President Donald Trump told veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward on March 19th that he publicly minimized the danger of the coronavirus:

“I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because i don’t want to create a panic.”

Audio of the exchange can be found here.

Trump acknowledged to Woodward in an interview dated February 7 that the virus “goes through air\" and is “more deadly than even your strenuous flus.\"
The above remarks stand in contrast with public comments Trump made at the time. Three days after the above interview, for instance, Trump said:

\"Looks like, by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away. I hope that's true.\"

Trump also told Woodward in March of “startling facts” about the COVID-19 virus, including that it's “not just old people\" catching it—even though the president claimed as recently as August that young people are “immune” to the virus.
Trump defended his remarks at a White House event naming potential future Supreme Court nominees:

\"The fact is, I'm a cheerleader for this country. I love our country. And I don't want people to be frightened. I don't want to create panic, as you say. And, certainly, I'm not going to drive this country or the world into a frenzy. We want to show confidence. We want to show strength. We want to show strength as a nation.\"

—Josh Herman

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Won’t listen to slogans, chanted mantras or generally any kind of marketing spin or “rebranding” crap. I firmly believe that everyone else is entitled to their erroneous opinions. Citizen vigilance and due diligence is price we must pay to live in a thriving, functional democracy.\nI fear that our citizens are too easily swayed by politician’s pablum about “babies”, “jobs” and now, in particular, perceived “enemies”. I fear that a citizenry focused on the “here-and-now” is easily tricked by short term benefits that have negative long-term consequences. I fear that our legislators are more concerned about buffing their constituents than looking out for the long-term welfare of our country- and are way too eager to provide those short-term benefits to the “here-and-now” crowd.\nI fear that honor is generally being sacrificed/replaced by expediency. I hear politicians eloquently argue for one side of an issue and later, when it’s to their benefit, just as eloquently argue for the opposite side. OK, so they are good at arguing- but what is that they actually believe? What is it that they actually stand for? An honorable person has values that persist even when it is not convenient or expedient. An honorable person has a moral compass that stops them from doing something wrong even if it is not illegal. A foul is a foul- even if the referee doesn’t catch you.\nI fear that each of our federal governmental branches have devised or discovered shortcuts which tend to protect them from the checks and balances our founders intended.","twitter_id":null,"facebook_id":null,"youtube_id":null,"google_plus_id":null,"website":null,"slug":"jimk","issue_count":4,"is_following":null,"influence_score":48210,"influence_level":40,"follower_count":1632,"following_count":88,"position_count":565,"id":"9odrQBnb","partner_id":null}],"article_comment":{"flagged":false,"id":1346259,"body":"This is unconscionable! This man who occupies the highest office in the land has admitted to a heinous dereliction of duty! How can he ask for a second term when he admits to dooming hundreds of thousands of Americans by ignoring the greatest threat to the health of this nation in more than a century? ","parent_type":"Article","parent_id":46096,"created_at":"2020-09-10T13:33:19.402Z","liked":false,"like_count":2,"links":{"self":"https://www.causes.com/comments/1346259","likers":"https://www.causes.com/api/v1/likers?likeable_id=1346259&likeable_type=Comment"},"article_id":46096,"shareable_image_url":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/comments/1346259.png","note":{"icon":"angry","color":"#624960","stance":"angry"},"note_text":"Angry","note_color":"#624960","user_id":"GWdrb4Vm","liker_ids":["Bmyny8a9","9odrQBnb"]}}

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